


for victory, i must

by stover



Series: always haunted; sometimes scared [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crimes & Criminals, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Rivals, Gen, Heists, Hoenn!Lance, Hostage Situations, International Police (Pokemon), Johto!Keith, Kidnapping, Pokemon AU, Pokemon Battle, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:01:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22356091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stover/pseuds/stover
Summary: Most trainers dream of becoming League Champion. Keith dreams of finding his family.At 17, Keith Kogane has infiltrated an underground crime syndicate, caused the destruction of two historical ruins, and stole ancient relics only to lose them to the sea—all for the sake of finding his parents. When he gets an offer promising him information about his parents in exchange for a rare item, Keith takes on the job. After all he’s done, stealing a pokeball from Lumiose’s Pokeball Boutique should be a piece of cake.Except, it’s not just any pokeball. It’s the goddamn masterball.
Relationships: Allura & Keith (Voltron), Coran & Keith (Voltron), Hunk & Keith (Voltron), Keith & Lance (Voltron), Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: always haunted; sometimes scared [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1325720
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	for victory, i must

Keith has just enough money to buy a sandwich on the train. Right now, that’s more than he can ask for; luck tends to run on the short side with him. Not surprising, given what he’s been doing lately—like scamming money off tourists in Castelia City. How else was he supposed to get the money for an inter-regional express train?

Keith feeds the few coins he has leftover into the slot of an automated vending machine. This model is new, like everything else on the JOLTEX, and has a bright yellow and white aesthetic. Upon paying, the machine lights up like the slots in Goldenrod, and his food gets dispensed down below with a chirp of, _“Thank you for your patronage. Enjoy your meal!”_ Keith takes his sandwich, and the vending machine moves on, wheeling itself down the aisle of the train car until it’s stopped by the next hungry passenger.

As the machine leaves, Keith shakes off his hood. His partner, a Salandit, is wrapped securely around his neck. Exposed, his Salandit startles and yanks his hood back up and over his head—and herself. Keith laughs.

“It’s okay,” he tells her, breaking the seal on the plastic container of his sandwich. “This train’s for Pokemon, too. See?” He points across the aisle, where an Aipom holds a picture book open with its tail while sipping juice from a bottle in its paws. Next to it sits a boy with large, round glasses, who looks to be about ten, with a Ditto in his lap. Ahead, there’s an Ampharos accompanying a woman with a fancy updo, and farther still is a group of snoring hikers, each with a partner of their own.

Keith feels Salandit’s snout poking out from under his hood. He strokes her there as she sniffs the air in lieu of peering out to survey what’s around her. Despite the presence of other Pokemon boarding in relative comfort, Salandit remains hidden from view. Her cool scales and soft belly flatten against the back of his neck as she winds tightly around his neck.

He doesn’t blame her. Her last owner kept her in a locked box and shuttled her and others from place to place on the tracks, sometimes traveling days at a time. Keith knows it’s hard for her to be on a train, but they don’t have a choice. He has three days to get what Colress wants, and the JOLTEX was the only way he’d get from Unova to Kalos and still have enough time to figure out where and how he was gonna get that damn ball.

He doesn’t even know if it’s worth handing it over to Colress. The last time Keith tried to strike a deal with him, an entire ruins disappeared down a sinkhole. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there were actual casualties involved this time. Researchers, like Dr. West, who’d taken him on a private tour of the ancient stone glyph puzzles in the area, and their Pokemon partners—gone, just like that.

But that’s not the only thing keeping Keith from trusting in a scientist. The item Colress is after now was something Keith’s once had his eye on. He might still want it again; he’d be lying if he said he’s not thinking of how easy it’d be to disappear once he gets whatever he’s supposed to get. It’s the masterball—who’d give up the masterball once it’s in their hands? 

But if it meant getting closer to finding out where his parents are, Keith’s willing to give up just about anything—and _do_ just about anything.

Doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel bad about some of the things he’s done.

Keith finally takes half his sandwich from the container. He closes the lid on the other half and rests it on the empty seat beside him. He’s starving, but he doesn’t take a bite yet. Instead, he rips off a corner of his sandwich and holds it by his right shoulder. His partner deserves the first bite. She’s the one who stole the money for them to get onto this train. Keith only played ‘dumb concierge clerk’ to buy her enough time.

He doesn’t expect it to be enough to entice her, but hunger wins out in the end. She emerges, slowly.

“Good girl.” Barely a second passes after his praise when she swipes the larger piece right out of his hand and dives back into his hood, raining crumbs down his shirt and leaving Keith to hold the piece he’d meant for her.

He lets her have it, even if she’s being a spoiled brat and making a mess on his clothes, because he knows she can’t finish it all. Besides, there was always the other half in the package, though he’d meant to save that for later.

(And if worse comes to worse, there’s always plenty of unsuspecting folks around for Keith to figure something out.)

Keith’s eating what his partner left him when he hears laughter, a gleeful, childish sort and the shrill, chittering noise made by a Pokemon. It’s a boy, the one across the aisle from him, the one traveling with a Ditto and an Aipom. 

“Sorry,” says the boy, patting his Aipom on the head as it waves its picture book at him and grins. “Your Pokemon’s funny. What is it?”

“A Salandit.” Keith’s not the conversational type, but he can’t help himself when it comes to talking about his partner. “She’s fire-poison, from Alola. She’s prickly, but she’ll warm up to you if you stick by her long enough.” He feels for her through his hood, finding her soft body and giving her a soothing pat. “Wanna say hi?” he asks her.

She hisses and growls, surprising no one. Keith rolls his eyes while the boy grins.

“Spicy,” he says. “I like her.”

Keith feels the pride warming his chest when he smiles. “Me too.”

“My name’s Eli. This is my Aipom, Bam. And this is Ditto—no nickname yet. We’re from Aspertia Town.”

The Aipom bounces up and down and chatters at him in greeting. The Ditto smiles the same vacant smile as every other Ditto in the world, but Keith swears it’s giving him the stink-eye.

And then, Eli’s Ditto suddenly hisses and growls, mimicking Salandit’s unpleasant greeting perfectly. 

With a gasp, Eli slaps his hands on his Ditto’s face. “Dude! Don’t be a jerk,” he scolds. The Ditto jiggles in mute laughter. The Aipom snickers, then abruptly stops when the boy turns a stern eye on it as well. “That goes double for you, mister.” 

Keith leaves the boy to lecture his Pokemon. It’s clear they’ve been together a long while, and clearer still that the boy, despite how young he looks, knows what he’s doing. There’s a trickle of jealously that goes through him at that, because when Keith was just starting out, seven years back, he had absolutely no idea what he was doing. 

He still doesn’t.

“I’ve never been to Alola,” says the boy. “My brother’s been, once. He said they have really cool Pokemon, and that he’ll take me there some day… Hey, you got any more Pokemon from there?”

Keith lies. “Nah. Just her.”

“Oh.” Eli deflates a little. Keith almost feels bad for lying, but there’s no way he’s gonna bring out the jackass of his team out here.

To Keith’s luck, Eli quickly bounces back to being curious. “My brother says Alola’s a bunch of small islands. Do they not have trains in Alola? Is that why she’s scared?”

Salandit grows rigid against his neck. Her tail flicks out through his hoodie to curl over his throat. It’s a tight fit, but not too bad this time. Keith gives Salandit a soothing pat through his hoodie. “Something like that.”

Eli’s face quickly fills with something like sympathy. “Aw, that sucks. Well, I don’t like boats, so I guess I know a little like what she’s feeling.” Then he grins. “Ooh! But I bet she’s wicked cool in battle! Fire and poison sounds awesome!”

Keith feels Salandit perk up at the compliment, her lithe body easing softly as she falls to a gentle stillness. “I think she heard you,” he tells Eli, and finds he likes the eager look on the boy’s face.

Eli takes a deep breath and leans forward, his arms squeezing around Ditto. The Ditto gets squashed comically against the boy’s chest, but it never stops smiling. “Hi, Salandit!” Eli says, a little louder than he needs to. “My name’s Eli. Nice to meet you!”

To Keith’s surprise, Salandit darts her face out from his hood. She looks calmly at Eli, her unblinking eyes assessing the boy like a mother would a stranger speaking to her child. After a moment, her forked tongue flicks out a few times as she shifts her whole body to sit on his shoulder, carrying what’s left of the sandwich she swiped in her hands. Then she looks to Keith and presents the sandwich to him, tapping the remains against his cheek as if she didn’t believe he would know she meant she was no longer hungry.

With a sigh, Keith takes it. The ham is gone, as well as the tomato and most of the lettuce. Only the cheese is left alongside the bread. He revels at the level of pickiness she has, feeling annoyed despite knowing this is all because he spoils her.

Keith, of course, says nothing and resigns himself to eating his partner’s leftovers.

“Oh,” says Eli, face flush with excitement. “She’s so cool. She’s a lizard! I love lizards.”

Salandit drinks in the compliment, making a soft trilling low in her throat in response. Keith wants to laugh, because she’s imitating how Talonflame reacts when he praises her, and he knows for a fact that Salandit thinks his bird is dumb as shit.

(Considering how he found it trapped in a cave with only one way in or out, he’s apt to agree. He’d never admit it out loud, though. Talonflame has a sensitive soul.)

Eli looks hopeful. “See, Salandit? The train’s not so bad, right?”

Salandit hisses softly, but doesn’t sink back into the safety of his hood. Keith humors the boy. “I think that’s a yes,” he says, and watches a bright smile break across Eli’s face.

Suddenly, Eli’s Aipom leaps up and hops onto the boy’s head. It bounces there, knocking the boy’s glasses off in its haste to point and squeal urgently at the window.

Eli panics. “Gah, my glasses! Bam, be careful—I’ve only got this pair left cause of the last time!”

Before Keith or his Salandit can retrieve the fallen glasses, Eli’s smiling Ditto slides down and plops noisily to the floor. It sucks in the boy’s glasses with its body, hops back onto Eli’s lap, and gently places them on his face.

“Thanks, Ditto.”

Still smiling, the Ditto gurgles in what Keith swears is a patronizing tone.

The Aipom tugs at Eli’s shirt and taps the window with worrying strength. 

“What? What is it?” Eli hurries to look.

Curious, Keith looks out his own window. The open fields run a vibrant green with dots of pink and yellow, and snow-capped mountains hang in the distance. The tracks run over a rocky path, and the JOLTEX shoots almost without a sound in its usual speed of 310 miles per hour.

There doesn’t seem to be anything particularly interesting out the window.

“Oh,” he hears from Eli, in a voice so soft, it surprises him. “This is…” Eli leans away from the window. A frown mars his face, pushing deep against his brow and turning the corners of his lips down. “My stop’s coming up soon.”

Keith blinks. “Here?” he asks, stunned. They haven’t reached any regional borders yet. Kalos is still hours away. 

“Yeah. It’s, um. A mining town. Yen Valley. There’s another train that goes down to Johto from here. It goes through Mt. Silver and there’s a stop at the base of the mountain, so a lot of hikers like to come here.”

“Oh. Is your brother a hiker?”

“No, he’s a trainer. Right now, he's just studying Pokemon, but he's gonna be the Champion one day.”

Keith doesn’t tell Eli that a hiker can still call themselves a trainer; anyone can, these days, as long as they have a Pokemon. Instead, he says, “I see.” Everyone wants to be the Champion these days. He thinks, if his parents hadn’t disappeared, he might’ve wanted to be one too.

Eli’s a good kid, so Keith thinks his brother is, too. He hopes he makes it far. “Tell him I wish him the best of luck,” Keith says, and he means it. 

Something on Eli’s face changes. “I can’t.” Before Keith can ask, Eli turns to the window.

Keith feels a sinking silence filling between them. An heavy, familiar ache wants to settle in his chest, but Keith defiantly pushes it away.

“Eli? What happened to your brother?”

Eli doesn’t answer right away.

The ache in Keith’s chest burns, twisting hot and sharp inside him. He suddenly wishes he hadn’t asked.

“He’s missing.” 

The words _I’m sorry_ lay unspoken on Keith’s tongue. He doesn’t dare say it, knowing it does nothing, knowing the bitterness of empty offerings. He thinks it, still— _I’m sorry_ —because it’s what he’s heard so often, from so many people, the rare times he lets slip why he does what he does and why he can’t stop.

Eli’s Aipom drapes itself around him, cooing and rubbing its face soothingly against the back of the boy’s head. In Eli’s lap, the Ditto directs its vacant smile accusingly at Keith. 

_I know,_ Keith wants to tell it, _I’m an asshole. What else is new?_

“I’m gonna find him.” Eli says this as if he were reciting a fact. He turns back from the window to look right at Keith. “I know I am.”

The resolve on the boy’s face is impressive, but Keith can see the cracks in the mask: the sliver of doubt, the weight of sorrow, the spark of fear, the dreaded whirlwind of thoughts that all start the same— _“What if…?”_

He knows it all; he feels it every single day. And he knows, too well, how it never really goes away.

“What’s your brother’s name?” Keith’s not the type to get involved, but Eli is young, and Keith has a soft spot for him already. “I travel a lot, so I’ll keep a look out. I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”

“—am.” Eli’s voice is so soft, Keith thinks he mishears.

“What?”

Eli says it again, firmer this time. “Adam. My brother’s name is Adam. Adam West.”

Oh.

Oh, no.

Keith feels the train car swerve. Which is impossible, because the JOLTEX is on a straight track and the maglev’s turns are smooth and never sudden. 

“I’m going to find him,” Eli says, amongst other things that Keith doesn’t hear, because he’s not hearing anything anymore, he can’t. He can’t listen to this, to any of this. He can’t.

Because Adam West was the researcher who studied the stone glyphs at the Ruins of Alph.

**Author's Note:**

> "s-tover" on tumblr.


End file.
